In august of 2011 I was commissioned to work with the Tikunas at the Colombian Amazonia where Colombia, Peru and Brazil share the most gordeus river. My work was to create a series of portraits with the native community during a big celebration: three of their girls would come to a complete haircut ceremony as a symbolic transition from their childhood into puberty.

The entire town were danced and sang, welcoming the new women that in the near future perhaps and hopefully will become mothers.

I was lucky to work with a team that gave me the freedom to isolate the subject from their environment using a white background, maybe as a tribute to Richard Avedon, however, there was more than this reason to do it: to have the chance to look at their eyes, look at them as independent persons, not as a part of a community.
Those few seconds when they decided to participate in my dea is perhaps what makes me dig continuously in this job because it is a unique chance to see the most powerful map of the human soul: their faces. Here are some of them.

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Posts tagged with portraits

The Tikuna Project

alejo arango at pdnonline.com